Cheney’s memoir takes us through the events leading up to the 2020 election, the attempted coup and the investigation that followed. In granular detail, she explains how a maniacal narcissist insistent on retaining power bent weak men and women to his will. Had Republicans not played along with the “big lie,” not signed a brief attempting to disenfranchise millions of voters, not raised bogus objections to electoral votes, not maintained those bogus objections even after the assault on the Capitol, not acquitted Trump in his second impeachment and not continued to curry favor with him, the nation long ago would have done away with the only president ever to refuse to transfer power peacefully to his successor.
Cheney’s account is a damning indictment of a party that prizes power over principle, careerism over country. Along the way, she singles out disreputable lawyers, opportunistic apparatchiks and deceitful right-wing media figures who not only would not stand up to Trump but also attacked those who did. She makes a powerful case that no written Constitution or statute is sufficient to deter men and women determined to act in bad faith and even deploy violence.
Few could argue that Republicans still prize character in their leaders. A 2018 Gallup poll found: “Republicans, by 22 points, were much more likely than Democrats to say it was very important for the president to be a moral leader when [Bill] Clinton was in office.” The pollsters continued, “Now with Trump in office, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to hold this view, by 14 points.”
Rules, norms and laws are empty fixtures without decent, patriotic leaders. We cannot survive when one party’s leaders give up on truth, loyalty to country and self-restraint.
By contrast, Levitsky and Ziblatt explain that elements designed to prevent mob rule and emergence of an executive despot have become a fortress for a political minority — mostly White, rural and Christian. The essence of democracy, majoritarian rule, is therefore thwarted. The authors enumerated numerous antidemocratic devices such as the filibuster, the electoral college, the rural-state biased Senate, gerrymandering, lifetime-appointed Supreme Court justices and voting restrictions that have been adopted by the Republican Party. The latter no longer can compete for majority support in an increasingly pluralistic country, so it relies on these devices to stay in power.
As Ziblatt explained in an interview, “The Republican Party in particular doesn’t actually need to win majorities of voters to win power. So that’s why we need to reform our institutions and consider things like reducing the power of the filibuster, maybe eliminating the electoral college to encourage the Republican Party to have to win majorities.” He added, “If they had to win majorities, they wouldn’t radicalize. If they didn’t radicalize, we wouldn’t have the dysfunction that we have today.”
Elements that were once the product of pragmatic compromise (a bicameral Congress, with a Senate favoring sparsely populated states) or rarely deployed (the filibuster) now threaten the essence of our democracy. Popular will on everything from abortion to gun reform can be thwarted, leading to gridlock and a loss of confidence in government to respond to public will.
The solution to the tyranny of the minority is a wave of pro-democracy reforms, including elimination of gerrymandering and lifetime terms for Supreme Court justices as well as expansion and protection of voting rights. Republicans, once deprived of the crutches that allow minority control, thereafter will need to appeal to the multicultural, multiracial electorate of the 21st century.
Each argument presents a cogent, powerful explanation for the perilous state of our democracy. Electing true patriots would certainly help, but even well-meaning politicians learn to play by the existing rules. Change the rules, and the incentives change as well.
Plainly, we need both structural change and public virtue to repair our democracy. But there is another element the analyses do not fully acknowledge: voters. We get the government we want and deserve.
If Republican voters had recoiled in horror after Jan. 6, 2021, former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) would have gotten the message. If voters had taken to the streets in public protest and vowed to cast out Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) as well as all the GOP senators who filibustered voting rights, it would have passed.
We can blame poor political leadership, a corrupt right-wing media and voting restrictions, to name a few, for the rise of a right-wing, authoritarian movement. However, ultimately, democracy is our collective responsibility. Republican primary voters know exactly who Trump is and what he plans for a second term (tyranny); we can blame them if they nevertheless imperil our democracy again by nominating him.
When tens of millions of Americans reject the premise of our Constitution, resort to fascist methods to hold power and demand the country be redefined along racial and religious lines, no structural remodeling nor crop of virtuous politicians can save the republic.
So, yes, reform the system and vote for better people, but the only real solution to what ails us is a surge of democratic activism, civic involvement and collective rededication to our constitutional system. If that happens, the rest will follow.
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